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Burn After Reading (2008)

Time Out rating

Average user rating

98 reviews

Synopsis

The Coens return to a lighter, glossier vein with this comedy drama about a missing CIA memoir. George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton star.

Movie review

From Time Out London

With their hangdog mugs now nestled against the bosom of mainstream Hollywood, indie-crossover darlings the Coen brothers have concocted another of their Hawkesian screwball quickies in which an ensemble of beautiful A-listers merrily play the fool. Already a hit in the US, ‘Burn After Reading’ is a snappy, confident, lightly satirical and stridently mischievous entertainment that arrives on the back of their sand-blasted lament for times past, ‘No Country for Old Men’.

But while the tenor may have changed, the madcap template is very much in place. The rub: a disc containing the memoirs of recently dismissed, mid-level CIA operative Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich at his high-falutin, foul-mouthed best) floats into the hands of two gormless gym employees-turned-recreational grifters, plastic surgery-obsessed singleton Linda (Frances McDormand) and soft liberal airhead Chad (Brad Pitt, right). After an inevitably calamitous attempt at bribery (‘We’ve got your secret shit!’), the pair find themselves cack-handedly doorstepping the Russian embassy in search of a swifter pay-off. Fold into that a parallel story where George Clooney’s rubber-faced philanderer, Harry, tries to juggle semi-serious flings with Linda and Osbourne’s flamed-haired ex, Katie (Tilda Swinton).

Considering the Coens’ past form with intricately plotted farces (‘Raising Arizona’, ‘Fargo’, ‘The Big Lebowski’), this does feel effortless to the point that you might imagine they could have scribbled it on the back of a napkin between breakfast and brunch. Yet, beneath its deadpan façade, nimble direction and robust photography (care of Emmanuel Lubezki) lies a cheerily nihilistic (misanthropic even?) work which paints its characters as preening, self-obsessed, idiot savants who wear stupid clothes, habitually lie, misuse the internet for dating and wouldn’t know a conscience from a Coke bottle. Even at their lowest ebb (2004’s ‘The Ladykillers’) the brothers’ palpable affection for old movies injected some humanity into the overly sardonic proceedings; but here, even the movies are bad, as seen in their snarkily anodyne film-within-a-film, ‘Coming Up Daisy’.

The audience are, in the end, placed in the boots of JK Simmons’s flummoxed CIA chief who, having been nervously informed of the preceding antics, finds it tough to fathom how these people could have been so damn stupid. It’s possibly the Coens’ least romantic film, which makes the cynical tone a tough pill to swallow, but chances are that you’ll be too busy hooting and chuckling idiotically to notice.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 1991, Oct 16 – 22, 2008

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User reviews of this film

Kevin said...

Posted on Apr 27 2011 08:31 Having looked through all of the comments on this film ( must find something more important to do ) it is clear that the majority of people can see the naked emperor walking naked down the road - with only devoted Coen fans supplying second hand clothes from earlier Coen successes to maintain the illusion of a good film.

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John Cooper said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 11:00 What I wrote was . . a `subtle` parody . . .The ` subtle`
is clearly the dimension that Kevin misses in his
`plain and simple` analyis of this enjoyable Coen Brothers film.

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Kevin said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 10:28 Plain and simple - this film is garbage from start to finish. Please stop trying to make out plots,sub-plots,themes,parodies of life etc etc to excuse this waste of time.

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John Cooper said...

Posted on Apr 25 2011 23:24 A subtle parody of the spy-thriller genre by the inimitable Coen brothers . . . By highlighting the basic
human drives and weaknesses, the Coens demystify
the usual cinematic depiction of the espionage game.
and deliver `ordinary ` people with basic human frailties . . . adultery, fear of ageing, fear of redunancy,
and material greed. In this chaotic world, serendipity
rules, . . morality and logic don't apply, . .and events
are out of control . . . .Frances MacDormand is the most
sympathetic character, as she strives desperately for
the plastic surgery which she hopes will bring her success in the internet dating game . . . . . That she perseveres and triumphs punctuates the comedic tone
to this film which prevails over the darker elements in
this quintessential Coen Brothers product.

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kevin said...

Posted on Jan 16 2011 17:50 Anyone giving this awful film more than one star remind me of the people who could see The Emperors New Clothes as he walked down the street. Please open your eyes and accept that it is allowed to admit that the Coen brothers have produced a truly appalling film and should be ashamed of trying to make money from their reputation

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DV said...

Posted on Jan 16 2011 09:37 Thanks 1 star people. You've just reminded me how good this film is. Must watch it again!

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BarbieDoll100 said...

Posted on Jan 15 2011 18:08 Why Brad Pitt and George Clooney would appear in this film is beyond me. It stunk! What a waste of their talents.

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Margo said...

Posted on Jul 29 2010 02:14 The film was slow to start with but it got better once you got into it and there were a lot of funny bits. The bit where Harry was smashing up the chair with the attached implement waving around was very silly but hilarious.

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Annie said...

Posted on Dec 10 2009 01:35 Hilarious and ironic and slapstick. Loved every minute of it.

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Tuskan360 said...

Posted on Oct 30 2009 19:33 Worst film I've ever watched, there was no plot line to speak of, it just never went anywhere. There were no real jokes, just lots of swearing for no good reason.

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Anthony said...

Posted on Jul 23 2009 04:10 This is the worst film I have ever seen. I didn't realise it was a comedy until I came online disappointed to see what the reviews said. I didn't laugh once, I didn't even come close to raising a smile. I thought it was going to be some kind on intelligent slow burner but I was wrong. I'm actually annoyed this film stole 95 minutes of my life. Were such lines as 'We've got your secret shit' and mistaking 'drivel' for 'dribble' supposed to be funny? Absolutely pathetic.

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Paul C said...

Posted on Apr 12 2009 16:41 Excellent film. Very clever script.

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wilko said...

Posted on Mar 16 2009 13:35 John we're all different, you cn't defend a film by saying people don't understand the Coen Bros humour. It might just be the case that this wasn't very good. I've never got French and Saunders but it's not because I don't get their humour. It's because they're shite.I thought it was OK effortless, not a Fargo or Lebowski but OK

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miles said...

Posted on Dec 09 2008 16:23 this represents everything that has gone wrong with hollywood -a real pity

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Geezer said...

Posted on Dec 06 2008 23:30 The Coen's worst since Crimewave. Indulgent and unfunny, it sneers at all its characters, and the audience for watching in the hope of being entertained. It also makes their other comedies seem worse in retrospect, as their quirky humour now seems more like arrogance than it did before. The ending is basically the Coens admitting they have no ending, and no, they don't care.

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